Bigger, better, stronger
The premiere woodworking event of the year – IWF 2024 – is, as they say, right around the corner.
The International Woodworking Fair at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta is a huge event by any standards, although it got off to a shaky start this decade. There was no 2020 event (thanks a lot, Covid-19), but it came back strong two years ago with 900+ exhibitors and more than 25,000 attendees.
It looks like the event is riding that 2022 success to even bigger numbers this year. Organizers will welcome more than a thousand exhibitors this time around. They’ve increased the show space to 733,000 sq. ft. of woodworking goodness, compared to “only” 663,000 sq. ft. last time. Meanwhile, final estimates of attendance, with more than a month to go before the event, are predicted to top 27,000.
Two years ago, in the throes of the pandemic, no one knew where the industry and the economy was going. With IWF canceled, material and supply chains crippled, and workers idled by closings and quarantines, things looked bleak.
That’s not to say that things are completely rosy now, what with the strife in Eastern Europe impeding supplies again (especially plywood), and a shortage of experienced trade workers, but the 2022 IWF turnout in both exhibitors and attendees hinted that things in the woodworking industry were recovering.
It will be many years before we’re completely past all the effects of the pandemic – if ever – but the advance figures for IWF 2024 showing an increase in exhibitors and show-goers indicate, to me, at least, that the industry is healing.
